Which is why Apple bought that Israeli company that designs flash controllers. Apple "approved" SSDs will be best for your Apple computers. Various SSD optimizations(TRIM among them) included in future OSX builds will only be available on SSD drives for mac, that would feature Apple designed controllers.Reply

Anobit concentrates on NAND longevity, although they seem to make enterprise level controllers as well. It's definitely not clear that Apple will come up with their own SSD controller, but it's possible. Apple has always more or less relied on third parties for the hardware components so designing their totally own SSD controller would be a big step. Reply

Anobit also makes an embedded flash controller, the MSP3035(? I think that's what it's called). They have several patents concerned Digital Signal Processing and Memory Signal Processing. STEC Inc also uses some kind of DSP as well (or is planning to, based on an article their Technical Marketing Manager wrote for EE Times). Their MSP embedded controller is claimed to have a max speed of 666MBs, though it's unclear whether this is external or what configurations are needed to achieve that. The MSP works with 2xnm SLC/TLC/MLC.Reply

Yes, Apple is intent on strangling the nascent MBA SSD replacement market in its cradle. I mean, last time I checked, there were at least NINE people in the world who were interested in cracking their MBAs open to dick around with the insides.

Hell, why don't you really ramp up the crazy. Did you know that you can't rip out the CPUs on MBAs and replace them with an overclocked Intel CPU, let alone an AMD CPU? Did you know that the RAM on MBAs is soldered?And you know what --- ALL Ultrabooks are pretty much the same.

Look, Apple is not perfect. They do plenty of dumb stuff. But this obsession some people have with assuming the entire world wants to mix-and-match their hardware is just stupid beyond belief. It was stupid when people first whined about iPods not having replaceable batteries over ten years ago, and the same crowd that were whining then have apparently learned NOTHING from the trajectory of either Apple as a company, or hardware in general, over the past ten years.Reply

Why do you attribute me with malice ? The SSD market is nascent and it's drowned in controllers from different companies. Apple does not want to mess with this mess and would design(IMO) its own controllers for Apple approved SSDs. It will be a requirement that a SSD manufacturer would include Apple's controllers. It is not about strangling the DIY aspect, it is about "quality control" as Apple would put it. Apple does not want to rely on 3rd party firmwares if any issues should arrive. Apple's mo is to provide all drivers/firmwares themselves.Anyway who knows if this flash purchase is aimed at SSD controllers for their desktop offerings ? It might be, but we cannot say for sure.

Why is whining about not having a replaceable battery stupid? It is one of the reasons that I will not buy an iPhone. Obviously I am in the minority, but it doesn't make it stupid. Just because the device is successful doesn't mean I have to like/agree with their design decisions.Reply

I'm under the impression the non-modular batteries Apple is using in their i-products and laptops is of a kind that be charged many more times (more cycles) then modular batteries. Should last a couple of years longer than other batteries.

the unibody batteries are brainless to replace if you have like one cheap screw driver. if you buy the warranty from apple and your battery dies before then you can maybe get it replaced for free often because it died prematurely.

otherewise if you have no warranty then replacing it yourself is not in danger of voiding the appplecare.

you're not a design engineer and designing the components and how they fit together iside an mba or mbp is not easy at all, maybe even more crazy for iphone. so long term why should they sacrifice better design for a removable battery most only have to replace once in the useful lifetime of the product??Reply

Non-replaceable battery prevents the owner from putting a faulty / leaky battery in during warranty. Makes sense to me, as I live in China where junk batteries are sold on the street corner to tight-wads who want an extra battery for their phone / music player.Reply

I use TRIM Enabler with a Vertex 2 (SF-1222) on my machine with no issues (10.7.2). If you're unsure, try it anyway. As the article says, the software makes it very easy to restore the vanilla kext if you notice any issues with the patched one.Reply

I'm under the impression the non-modular batteries Apple is using in their i-products and laptops is of a kind that be charged many more times (more cycles) then modular batteries. Should last a couple of years longer than other batteries.

SF2281s don't really act like other drives during TRIM. Some of the SF2281 BSoD's are directly attributed to TRIM (and indeed, I've experienced this multiple times first-hand). SF228x drives are pretty relaxed about TRIM in general. Their garbage collection is good, but not nearly as aggressive as some Indilinx FW and some drives like the Corsair Performance 3 (The predecessor to the performance Pro).Reply

apple does things for very specific reasons, and i truly truly believe that the TRIM being disabled on non MAC ssd drives (via the OS) was done DELIBERATELY so that you would be FORCED to buy the 3x's over priced SSD with the Apple name on it.

dont kid your self you fan boys, apple is smart and they know damn well that doing this increases their revenue because they can get more sales from people who want larger capacity.

did they do it to ensure 100% hardware comatability, yes i believe they did as that has been the way builds their systems, always has been and always will be.the OS only works on certain hardware, the hardware only works on certain OS's. and when you try to backdoor that methodology you have to do some serious hacking to get it to work, or you buckle and buy the apple branded hardware.

does apple care. pfpfpf hell no, they dont care one teeny tiny bit.

i would almost bet that you very shortly will see Apple trying to have this software banned or removed as it circumvents some sort of bullshit patent apple thinks they have.

p.s.

i am a HAPPY macbook air owner, and MAC Mini. but i also own more PC's than MAC and i enjoy each and every system i have.but the Air and its soldered RAM and silly designed SSD was something i will never get over.Reply

By far the largest amount of Apple's money comes from sales to the general market. While they might pull some shenanigans during initial sale of a product (e.g. getting the upgraded RMBP model to upgrade the SSD) your theory of them excluding TRIM support from third-party SSDs specifically to encourage customers to purchase SSD upgrades directly through them strikes me as a conspiracy theory. Heck, you can't even find a SSD upgrade in their store unless you search for it properly, and even then, you're lucky to come up with more than an overpriced kit for 512 GBs in a Mac Pro.

P.S. Your Air has a flat chip SSD because a 2.5" SSD would seriously interfere with their ability to make the machine so thin.Reply